Where’s Hillary?
This is what we’ve all been fearing.
RTHK [Radio Television Hong Kong] reports:
The Human Rights in China Biweekly Journal [here, in Chinese] says artist and political activist Ai Weiwei has pleaded guilty to charges related to tax. An article, written by a reporter claiming to work for Xinhua [the Chinese news agency], says Ai had reluctantly admitted to the crime after being tortured by Police [emphasis added].
Ai was taken away by police [my link, not theirs] at Beijing airport more than two weeks ago and his whereabouts have been unknown since. His sister, Gao Ge, told RTHK that she would rather her younger brother agreed to a conviction than undergo more torture. But she said the family had not yet heard any thing from the authorities on the matter.
In a case of too little too late (at least for Ai), the U.S. State Department yesterday announced:
The United States and China will hold the U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue on April 27-28, 2011. Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner will lead an interagency delegation to Beijing for the event.
Discussions will focus on human rights developments, including the recent negative trend of forced disappearances, extralegal detentions, and arrests and convictions [emphasis added], as well as rule of law, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, labor rights, minority rights and other human rights issues of concern.
The United States looks forward to candid and in-depth discussions over the course of the two days. The United States raises human rights concerns with China regularly and at high levels. The Human Rights Dialogue provides an important channel for in-depth discussions of these issues between U.S. and Chinese experts.
It would send a far stronger message if Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton herself were in attendance for this “candid, in-depth discussion,” demanding that Ai be released before her return to Washington. Previous discussions “at high levels” (beneath that of Secretary) seem to have had little impact.
Perhaps the State Department needs to change its slogan from “Diplomacy in Action” to “Diplomacy Inaction.”